Edsel

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

I just emailed you a bunch of pictures (from my cox.net account) to go with the previous stuff.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

I am emailing a package of stuff in a few minutes.

 

EDIT: I just sent it from my workplace so it'll be from a state.ok.gov domain.

Re: 5thed For $150!

 

People fear change.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

I decided to wait until the first game (this Saturday) before I post any of the other character back stories. A few of the players may want to have a "big reveal" at the game. In the meantime if any of them want to post they can and I'll post the remaining stories Saturday evening.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

Randy, I assume that this is your finalized history? It looks good. I guess I need to get around to posting the history of the other 4 characters. Maybe I can do that during my lunch hour. I may have to attach Donn's as a file since its a Word document about 6 or 7 pages long.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games

 

This thread has been going for so long I don't remember if I, or someone else, has already posted this link.

Lots of cool guns for near-future / cyberpunk games.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

We are hoping to get this campaign started on May 16th. That's about a month later than I had hoped but it is amazing how things can conspire against the best laid plans.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

It is extremely exasperating to try and browse the Hero Forums during lunch while at work. Every time someone posts what might be a cool link I click it only to get the forbidden warning from our server. Then by the time I get home I can't remember where the threads are that I wanted to revisit.

 

I am amazed that I can visit the Hero website at all with the amount of stuff they filter out. I guess Hero is considered completely non-controversial and totally wholesome.

Re: Does the CU have a Submariner or Aquaman analogue?

 

Prince Marus is on page 27 of Hidden Lands. Yep, I think he'd fit the bill nicely.

Re: Converting MPH/KPH/KnPH to Game Scale

 

If you have a use for such a thing here is an easy to use Excel 2000 spread sheet.

 

Just enter the inches moved per phase, the SPD and the non-combat multiple. It will give you speed in MPH, Km/h, Knots, Mach and C. For both combat and non-combat speeds.

 

The spreadsheet is protected just to prevent accidental erasure of the formulas. There is no password required.

Re: Converting MPH/KPH/KnPH to Game Scale

 

By the Book:

1. First, figure out how many total inches the character moves in a Turn. (in other words, multiply the max non -combat movement velocity by the character's SPD).
   
2. Multiply that by 5 to determine the inches moved per minute.
   
3. Multiply that my 60 to determin inches moved per hour.
   
4. There are 804.5" in a mile and 500" in a kilometer.
   

Re: Western Hero

 

The price per head for cattle is going to vary depending on where you are. If you are out in the ranch lands where everyone raises cattle then the individual cow isn't worth that much. That's why they had cattle drives. If you get your cattle to a rail head so they can be shipped back east to the big meat packing firms that's how you make a profit.

 

Cattle, at a rail head, would probably average $30 a head with a truly exceptional specimen going for perhaps as high a $50. You'd probably get 1/5th that price out in the ranch lands.

 

I am basing this on a price list that I have from a non-Hero Games product. I can't help you much on land prices but I have a pretty good list of general and assorted items. What do you need?

Re: Ogrecave 6E interview

 

Wait' date=' seriously? COM is a top three? He could have tossed out the skill system, martial arts, elemental controls, or multipowers, disadvantages, ...but COM tops all that?[/quote']

By top three, I meant the top three issues that looked like they might change. I never really heard anything that seriously made me fear for the fate of martial arts, skills or power frameworks. COM kind of became a hot point with me since I got pretty involved in following the discussion back and forth about it.

 

That being said my number one issue was/is keeping figured characteristics. I think things like a good CON should contribute some to a character's STUN, END, etc. Someone who is Strong ought to be more resistant to Physical Pain (i.e. have PD to resist the STUN of a physical attack). De-coupling them robs the game of what I feel to be one of its most realistic features. I'd rather see STR boosted in cost to 2 points and keep the figured Characteristics. Most of my games are heroic level, not superheroic, and figured characteristics, in my opinion, work really good for heroic level games. If I want to play an unusual Superheroic character who has a lot of CON but poor ED I'd simply sell back some ED. I truly loath the idea of de-coupling.

 

I wonder if when 6th is released if there will still be a version(s) of HD that supports either:

A) Letting you somehow house rule figured characteristics back into the game.

or

If HD will split into two versions so you can have a copy that works for 6th and another copy that works for 5th.

 

Of course obviously the 5th Ed rules will not simply vanish I can keep what I got, I hope that back-converting new stuff will not be too tedious and time consuming.

Re: Ogrecave 6E interview

 

Well I am not too happy with what I am hearing. My top three issues with Hero System 6th Edition have always been.

1. Keep SPD and the SPD Chart System
   
2. Keep Figured Characteristics
   
3. Keep COM as a Characteristic
   

It sounds like I lose out on two of my big three.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

I have not read Watson's outline of Angelus - just Edsels.

Most of the Angelus stuff I have put into the campaign document was cut and pasted from Susano's Shadows Angelus worldbook. I assume that most of this came from Watson. If that is the case then, more or less, you have read Watson's outline. The changes that I made were subtle.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

Oh I certainly intend to keep Clades and Replicants in the game, and I believe that Clades should be much more prevalent than the purely human-looking Replicants. I like the logic about most Replicants being Clades since it makes them easily identifiable by those who cooked them up. It makes good sense that megacorps would use this sort of visual identifier.

 

Androids I am not sure about. If I want to use one in a game then I will. If I never get around to it, so be it. With AI being possible and the advanced level of cybernetics there is certainly no technical reason that androids can't exist. The human paranoia about AIs becoming too powerful is a more likely cause for their development to be curtailed.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

The megadynes in Silent Mobius were Cyborgs. Some seemed more android than human but it was clearly stated a couple of times that they were cyborgs.

Re: Compound Powers in a MP

 

Yeah, I have pretty much come to the conclusion that it is a legal (though really weird) build. It also turns out the player working with this design was misunderstanding how Multipowers work in the first place. The slot from the example above was within his 60-point MP. The player failed to understand that when this slot was activated (it was an ultra) that he had no point remaining to activate any offensive powers.

 

Another problem with this slot is that when it was activated the character had no personal immunity so their own PER and OCV would be affected. I also wonder if a foe used a ranged attack from several hexes away would the OCV penalty affect their attack?

One of my players is trying to design a character that has several multipower slots (mega slots) that are compound powers. Is this even allowed? If it is allowed, do the assorted powers that make up the compound power have to be activated proportionally? For instance here is one of the mega slots:

 

Kentic Shield: (Total: 59 Active Cost, 39 Real Cost) FF (15 PD/15 ED) (30 Active Points); IIF (ESPER focus; -1/4), Activation Roll 15- (-1/4) (Real Cost: 20) plus Change Environment 1" radius, -4 OCV (20 Active Points); IIF (ESPER focus; -1/4), Activation Roll 15- (-1/4) (Real Cost: 13) plus Change Environment 1" radius, -3 to Normal Sight PER Rolls (9 Active Points); IIF (ESPER focus; -1/4), Activation Roll 15- (-1/4) (Real Cost: 6)

 

First of all I doubt I should allow this sort of build anyway, but I am curious if it actually breaks any rules. As usual I could ask Steve this but I usually get quicker answers when I post here.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

Yeah, I wanna keep the Clades. It's true that no one in our group has chosen to run one but there is no reason to limit the possibilities they can provide for the campaign.

 

I have pretty much given Eosin card blanche in the history and background as long as the end result is the campaign setting I want (pretty close to the original Angelus as presented in Susano's world book). I make an occasional ruling to change his proposed history to fit my needs but most of the background work is his. I figure it doesn't matter as much how we got there as long as the city is the setting that I want in the end.

 

I have been spending most of my time behind the scenes helping people design player characters for the game. I comment on proposed character histories and character designs and eventually we tweak them into characters that I feel will work for the campaign. We are getting there but there is still a lot of work to do.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

 

Oops! Tiny text, I didn't even notice it.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

 

You know Bazza when you visit the first link in this series you get a forward and back arrow so you can page through all of the pictures.

 

Pretty good stuff though.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

I agree. If Clades are sterile then where in the heck did the multitudes come from? I could guess that various megacorps are still creating them but it seems a little hard to believe that, because:

 

A) Why would any particular corp need more than a couple of thousand (at most). Even if there were 50 big megacorps that would call for 50,000 Clades max.

How have vast numbers escaped the clutches of their corporate masters and found their way to Angelus.

 

Unless the world was massively depopulated by the cataclysms that sunk California it seems like it would still be much cheaper to simply field armies of normal humans. The Earth's current population is estimated to be about 6.77 billion. At the close of WW2 the population was about 2.5 billion. In WW2 there were multiple armies with millions of troops. Even if a great cataclysm wiped out half of the world's population we'd still have more people that at the close of WW2. Mathematically growing Clades for use as soldiers, etc. just doesn't make much sense.

 

I understand that a Clade might be physically superior enough to replace 20 normal soldiers but still it seems that the expense to grow and keep them would make hiring 20 normals a more attractive alternative. Plus if you make a Clade that formidable, how do you keep him in line with just normal overseers?

 

What unique abilities or properties would Clades have that would make the investment worth it?

 

It kind of sucks me working up an argument like this... 'cuz I think cat girls are a cute idea.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

Still exploring the setting and tropes a little bit.

 

Which led me to wonder why clades and megadines would both be used? They seem to serve the exact same purpose - rugged workers for inhuman conditions where people with rights and OSHA would freak. Both have no rights. Both are engineered to work ungodly difficult and dangerous jobs. One is mechanical and one is biological. It seems to be a case of Betamax vs VHS or Blue Ray vs HD-DVD. Surely one would or will edge out the other?

 

Full Disclosure: I dislike Clades. I am just not into anthropomorphic critters. It is also hard to find art matching the feel of the art pool we have for Angelus. Anyway, this may just be a case of my own bias coloring my perceptions.

Part of the reason may be that certain mega-corps have better tech and other have better bio-tech. Those on the cutting edge of cybernetic development can make megadines to act as security and muscle. Those who lack the tech but are big into bio-tech simply used genetic engineering to fulfill the same roles.

Re: Shadow Angelus

 

I like it. I want to live in Sakura. I wonder where in Alpha Ms. Cadbury lives?